Category Archives: Political Commentary

Humor, Political Commentary

Now This Was Just Mean

2 Comments

Actually, it sounds like something I would do, if I had nothing better (or more entertaining) to do:

I just had a young lady, age 22, call me up from the Clinton campaign to see if I had voted yet. I said no, but it was raining, and I wasn’t sure I was going to get out and vote. She wanted to know who I was supporting, Hillary or Obama? I said it was difficult to choose between the two of them, and asked for her opinion. I kept that poor girl on the line for about a half hour (work-wise, I was having a slow day). I had her jumping through hoops on NAFTA, health care, the war in Afghanistan, etc. No matter what we talked about, I would get squishy and head off in a different direction (that’s my usual impersonation of a lib). I started expressing my concern that “the minority community” would feel betrayed if Obama doesn’t get the nomination. “What will this do to future of the Party?”

But at least he’s not as rough on telemarketers as this guy.

Political Commentary

It’s Not Just Well-Aged Beef

It’s rotten:

In the 60 pages of words, there’s hardly a major new idea or an idea that departs significantly from the Democratic Party’s agenda since the New Deal. It’s all here: the activist government, the ambitious programs without reference to costs, the appeal to some people’s sense of victimization. There is also one striking omission–a list of anything that Senator Obama has actually done in the course of his brief career to advance any of these goals.

The point is that there is nothing here to back up a candidacy that is based on bringing the nation together to effect change. It’s a rehash of the same policies and programs that the Democratic Left has been pushing–largely without success–for the last 40 years. For some people, as least, the era of big government is not over.

I continue to be amazed at the willful self delusion on the part of the Democrats that either of their candidates are electable.

Political Commentary

It’s Not Just Well-Aged Beef

It’s rotten:

In the 60 pages of words, there’s hardly a major new idea or an idea that departs significantly from the Democratic Party’s agenda since the New Deal. It’s all here: the activist government, the ambitious programs without reference to costs, the appeal to some people’s sense of victimization. There is also one striking omission–a list of anything that Senator Obama has actually done in the course of his brief career to advance any of these goals.

The point is that there is nothing here to back up a candidacy that is based on bringing the nation together to effect change. It’s a rehash of the same policies and programs that the Democratic Left has been pushing–largely without success–for the last 40 years. For some people, as least, the era of big government is not over.

I continue to be amazed at the willful self delusion on the part of the Democrats that either of their candidates are electable.

Political Commentary

It’s Not Just Well-Aged Beef

6 Comments

It’s rotten:

In the 60 pages of words, there’s hardly a major new idea or an idea that departs significantly from the Democratic Party’s agenda since the New Deal. It’s all here: the activist government, the ambitious programs without reference to costs, the appeal to some people’s sense of victimization. There is also one striking omission–a list of anything that Senator Obama has actually done in the course of his brief career to advance any of these goals.

The point is that there is nothing here to back up a candidacy that is based on bringing the nation together to effect change. It’s a rehash of the same policies and programs that the Democratic Left has been pushing–largely without success–for the last 40 years. For some people, as least, the era of big government is not over.

I continue to be amazed at the willful self delusion on the part of the Democrats that either of their candidates are electable.

Economics, Humor, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Idiot Alert

Over at Reason, the sad tale of a free-loader wannabe:

The group was now “out of food, hadn’t slept in days and were really cold,” and decided, in a grubby version of Dunkirk, to abandon the mission and head back to England. Boyles is disappointed-but not deterred. He is, the BBC reports, planning “to walk around the coast of Britain instead, learning French as he goes, so he can try again next year.” At which point the cycle begins anew, when, upon reaching Baden-Baden, the poor lad will realize that he should have also studied German.

As Wilde said in another context, one would have to have a heart of stone to read this and not laugh out loud.

Humor, Political Commentary

Her Next Career

Iowahawk provides a glimpse of Hillary!’s future in the restaurant business.

Describe Incident(s) (be specific, including time)

At initial clock-in at 3:55 4/21/08, Sharon says Hillary refused to change into uniform skirt, which she said was demeaning, unflattering to legs. Hillary agreed to wear skirt only after lengthy argument between Sharon and Hillary’s attorneys. After numeorous complaints from customers, Hillary allowed to wear pants.

On 4/22/08, Sharon arrived for dinner shift, found restaurant unstaffed. Entire crew was in breakroom, where they said Hillary forced them to attend something called “Sausage Pricing Taskforce.”

Disciplinary Action:

Verbal reprimand; ordered new pantsuit uniform from District 6 Supply (size 18 short)

It gets better, naturally.

Political Commentary, Popular Culture, War Commentary

Where Have The Heros Gone?

6 Comments

It’s not a new subject, but Lileks muses on what’s happened to Hollywood (and popular culture in general):

…imagine a story conference for the Beowulf movie: you know, I see modern parallels here – not surprising, given the timelessness of the epic. But the Mead Hall is civilization itself, an outpost constructed against the elements, and Grendel is the raging force that hates the song they sing-

“They hate us for our singing!” Knowing chuckles around the table.

No seriously, he does hate them for their singing. That’s the point.

He hates what they’ve built, what they’ve done, how they live their lives.

“Maybe he has reason. That’s the interesting angle. What drives Grendel?”

Yes, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. No one’s ever taken the side of the demon in the entire history of literature, especially the last 40 years. By all means, let us craft an elaborate backstory for the guy who breaks down the door and chews the heads of the townsfolk, that we may better understand how we came to this point.

History, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary, War Commentary

Confused

11 Comments

Selena Zito writes that all of the remaining presidential candidates are Scots-Irish.

Really? This is the first I’d heard that Hillary! was of Scots-Irish descent. I’d always assumed that she was from Puritan stock. That’s the way she’s always acted. And Obama is obviously, at best, only half Scots-Irish.

Zito doesn’t seem to quite get the concept, either:

How can there be such scant understanding of a 30 million-strong ethnic group that has produced so many leaders and swung most elections?

Perhaps because political academics and pollsters parse the Scottish half off with the WASP vote and define the Irish-Catholic half as blue-collar Democrats. They are neither.

There is no “Irish-Catholic half” of the Scots-Irish. Scots-Irish aren’t Irish at all. Neither are they Scottish. They were mostly Anglo-Saxon, not Celtic. They were also a violent people with an honor culture, mercenaries from the border area between England and Scotland. As the article notes, they were sent by the English to colonize Ulster, to get them out of Britain after the war between England and Scotland was settled and they had no more need for them. The ones too violent for Ulster were shipped off to America, so they’re a double distillation of the most violent culture that the British Isles produced. After they fought (mostly for the South) in the Civil War, many of them headed out west.

People who think that America is too violent blame it on the proliferation of guns. But they confuse cause and effect. We have a lot of guns because we have a lot of Scots-Irish (aka rednecks). But it comes in pretty handy during war time.